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Welcome to the Yoga Nation, the Spirit of Gratitude podcast on the One Integration platform.
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Hello friends, my name is Yogesh Patel and this podcast explores the themes of bullying, self-awareness and the power of our inner spirit, including the silent battles we all face.
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Join me every week as I invite high-profile guests, as we explore how adversity shapes us, how gratitude lifts us and how we can all uncover the inner strength that we all have within ourselves.
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Join the conversation.
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I appreciate you listening in.
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If life gave you two chances of greatness, one on the football field and one on the music stage which one would you choose?
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Today's guest has lived both.
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He is Mr Sidney Justin, a man who has lived two superstar lives.
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On one hand, he's the soulful voice of the Miracles, carrying on the legendary Motown sound.
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On the other, he's a former NFL defensive back, having played in the Super Bowl, proving his grit on the field before dazzling the stage From street football in Los Angeles to producing and songwriting with icons such as Earth, wind, fire, shalimar, bobby Brown.
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Sidney's story is all about resilience, talent and faith.
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He's been tested by injury, by critics and by life in general, but each time he's bounced back stronger.
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Well, it's an honor to have you in studio, sidney.
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My pleasure.
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My pleasure to be here and, with gratitude, welcome to the podcast.
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Thank you.
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I appreciate the offer to be here, Absolutely.
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So.
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My first question, which you haven't yet prepped up on are you a love machine?
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Yeah, I used to be.
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Yeah, yeah, you know, I would say yeah because I love people.
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Man, you know, love is not just between male and female, it's about people, right, you know?
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So loving one another is the key to life.
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Sounds like you lead with the heart.
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I do.
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Yeah, I do.
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Yeah, I do.
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I think everyone should do that.
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Everyone should lead with their heart and think about others versus just self.
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Is that something that you learned or was it within you?
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I believe it's been within me.
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You know I'm very spiritual within you.
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I believe it's been within me.
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I'm very spiritual.
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I try to be as spiritual as possible.
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We all fail at certain things, but at the same time, I believe that having a relationship with Yahuwah, my Father, which is Heavenly Father, and if I have that relationship with Him, with Yahuwah my father, which is my heavenly father, and if I have that relationship with him, I know that I'm on the right path.
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And I sometimes slide off, you know, like we all do, but his forgiveness and his love that he's shown me throughout my whole life.
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Really, he's shown me love throughout my whole life.
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I think that you know I must do the same thing.
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Right, so that's how I treat other people too, same way.
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That's amazing.
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That actually ties into my next question, that is, you've said, or, excuse me, you often credit God, as you just mentioned, with giving you both your dreams the NFL and music.
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Yes.
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How do you personally define gratitude and why do you feel it's so important to talk about it today?
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well, I think you know, the definition of gratitude is um is is widespread.
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I think people don't.
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It's not a one thing, you know, it's not just one thing that you can do.
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You, you can do many things to express gratitude and I think, with with my gratitude, you know, like, like, when I perform, um, I'm doing it for for them and I'm thankful for them.
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So when I perform, it's a hundred percent, I'm giving a hundred percent of a performance because I'm very thankful that they came to people come to concerts, people come to the shows.
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You know, it's all for all sorts of forms of gratitude, you know, and uh, so, so when you do perform on stage and you mentioned the gratitude is it gratitude by itself or is there some degree of nostalgia, or is there something else within your inner spirit that allows you to become who you are on stage?
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um, that's a good question.
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You know, and I think that from my perspective of being on stage and being in this music world, you find a lot of different artists or producers or people in the industry.
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They all think of it in different forms, different ways, and I just think of it as loving one another.
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So when I'm doing a show, I'm loving them and hopefully they're loving me back.
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That is how I feel about that gratitude.
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It's that energy you project to the world.
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Yeah, energy, yeah, positive energy.
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Of course there's negative energy too.
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Sure, I try not to use any negative energy at all.
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And you said that music is therapy, and can you share a moment where writing or performing a song has helped you in the process of your own struggles or find peace?
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Yeah, I mean, I think music is very therapeutic If you really think about it.
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If you hear a song that you remember from back in the day, somewhere in your time, it brings those memories back.
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So it's therapeutic.
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So if it's a song that brings back bad memories, you don't want to hear it.
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You cry.
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And if it's a song that brings back happiness, you want to rejoice, and so I think music really is the key to a good therapeutic energy for us humans Agreed 100%.
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And on that note, just a little side humor there Ooh, Baby, Baby.
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Right, I think of it as the Salt-N-Pepa version back in the 90s with R&B and hip-hop.
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That's the era that I grew up in.
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Got you, I got you.
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It's so funny about the song Ooh Baby Baby.
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It was the first miracle song that I ever actually sang in high school.
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I'll tell you a little story about that.
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I went to Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles.
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Crenshaw High School had a lot of people that came out of that school a lot of athletes, lots of different people involved in music and so forth.
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Ice Cube as well, right, oh, yeah, yeah.
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And so I know.
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Ice-T.
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Oh okay, Not Ice Cube.
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Ice Cube went to a different school.
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Thank you.
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But same area, we grew up in the same area, anyway.
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So we did a talent show and the talent show was, you know, students performing for students, right, all right, and we would have adults come to the like, parents and things like that would come to the talent shows, and so we sang Ooh Baby Baby.
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I had a group, yeah, it's called the Five Enlightens, and we sang Ooh Baby Baby and another song.
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I think what you See Is what you Get.
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Okay, a lot of dramatics and after we sang the two songs, we went backstage.
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And another song, I think.
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What you See Is what you Get A lot of dramatics.
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And after we sang the two songs, we went backstage.
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And then, all of a sudden, who comes backstage was Ray Charles, ray Charles, the Ray Charles, not somebody else named Ray Charles, but the Ray Charles.
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So he comes backstage.
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He lived in the area, he lived in Baldwin Hills, which is right close to where Crenshaw High School is, and he would sometimes frequently come to events at the school.
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Okay, right, different schools, anyway, he happened to come in.
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Well, okay, so this is how it turned out.
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This is how it turned out.
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So I sang Oobay Baby and went backstage.
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And then he comes back with his handler and the guy's holding him by the arm and he comes into the dressing room and he wanted to meet me.
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So he said he came up to me and he started he's feeling my face and he's doing his thing, right, and he's a young man.
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I really thought it was Smokey when I walked in.
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I thought it was Smokey Robinson singing on stage and I was so surprised when they told me he was a student.
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So I had to meet you.
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Oh my goodness.
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And then he says you should take smoky's place.
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I get chills right now just thinking about that and you're only 16.
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At the time I was 7, 18, almost 18 almost 17 years.
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17 years old and um, and he said you should, you should really take smoky's place.
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He's leaving the miracle.
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I don't know how he knew that, or anybody knew that at that time.
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Anyway, nevertheless, uh, I said to him well, how would I do that?
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Yeah, and he gave me nothing.
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He just turned around, walked away, he just walked out the room and I was just standing looking at him like, well, why would he tell me that if he didn't tell me how Right you know?
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So I guess he wanted me to figure it out myself.
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That's what I felt later on.
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He just wanted me to figure it out myself.
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Now, it took a long time for that to take place, because here I am today, I'm the lead singer of the Miracles.
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Right.
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I'm taking Smokey Robinson's place.
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Smokey Robinson's a legend.
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He's a mega legend.
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Okay, and for me to be able to do that and have Ray Charles prophesize that is crazy to me.
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You know what I mean.
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It's a crazy experience.
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Would you consider it a divine moment?
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I would.
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I really would.
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Here he is a blind man prophesying about something that has happened to me years before it happened.
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I mean many years before Huh.
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Forward thinking and a visionary.
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Without vision.
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Yeah.
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He couldn't see he was blind.
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So how was that transition between becoming an NFL defensive back?
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Well, that's a whole other story, see, well, I'm going to get back to this story too.
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Yes, please, yeah, because I think people might want to know how well, how did it actually happen that I did get the opportunity.
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Yes, please, yeah, because I think people might want to know how well, how did it actually happen that I did get the opportunity to perform as the lead singer of the Miracle.
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So after that took place, it really never really, you know, kind of fazed me anymore.
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After that night, I mean, I thought about it a while and I was like that's weird, I mean I thought it was really strange, and I just went on, continued doing what.
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I was like that's weird, I mean it was.
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I thought it was really strange and I just went on continued doing what I was doing and, uh, and, and obviously nothing was happening with that, because he never gave me any, any solutions to that issue, right, so did you want it.
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Oh, I was very interested yeah under.
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You know if that was going to be the case, I didn't know, that was true.
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Smokey hadn't left yet.
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Oh right, yeah, you know what I mean.
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He was still in the group.
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It was not a situation.
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So you know, it was a strange experience, a strange conversation, to say the least, because of the outcome.
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Right, I never really thought about it that much after that fact, but, um, as things turned around, I started doing other musical things because I didn't play high school football.
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Okay, so I'm going to intertwine these, these things.
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Okay, so I didn't play high school football, I was a, I was a gymnast and and so I was actually pretty good.
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I had a lot of offers, school offers and stuff like that.
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I was like the all-around gymnast.
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I did everything tumbling floor, exercise, parallel bars, high bar rings, the whole thing right, long horse, all of the events.
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I did all of those and I was pretty good at all of them, and so that's what I did.
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Well, just so happens, the gymnastics coach was one of the football coaches as well, so I had a conflict there.
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I wanted to play football, he wanted me on the gymnastics team.
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He didn't think I could do both.
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He didn't want me to get hurt in football 16.
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He didn't think I could do both.
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He didn't want me to get hurt.
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Sure, ball you.
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So I, um, so I play football in the parks against like other, I just keep it real.
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But gangbangers, okay, other guys out in, in, in the, in the neighborhood and sure like that, different neighborhoods, and we would play against each other.
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Um, it wasn't no referees, none of that kind of stuff.
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You know what I mean.
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It was this the gridiron.
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It was definitely the real crazy, but it was a lot of fun to us and we had a good time.
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And I didn't play football because they wouldn't give me a chance to play.
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I tried out for the team every single year, but every year I got cut in high school.
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So I got cut every year that I tried out and I tried out and it wasn't really a tryout, because they never, I never did anything.
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They I was stood in line, we, I did the exercises, I did the, the running drills, but I never got in to do a play, any kind of play, whether on offense or defense.
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One year I tried out for offense.
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Next year I tried tried out for defense.
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It was kind of like I was trying to figure out how come I'm getting cut?
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Why'd you cut me?
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It never gave me no real answer, but I figured out later on.
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Well, the coach was a gymnastics coach.
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He was relying on me in gymnastics and didn't want me to be involved in football, so I never did play high school football.
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As it turns out, I was a gymnast my entire high school.
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Did the nose help strengthen your resolve, or what was the determination?
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That's right, I continue, okay.
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So, like I said, I got a couple offers to go to gymnastics scholarships, yeah, but I chose to play football over that and I went to a junior college.
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I went to LACC first, which is a junior college there and they had the same, it was the same situation.
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Gymnastics coach was a football coach.
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He wanted me to play, wanted me on the gymnastics team because he knew my history Right.
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And again they cut me again because they wanted rather for me to be a gymnast than for me to be a football player, not a play ever in high school Ever, yet you make it to the NFL and I guess I'm just guessing that in terms of being a gymnast, it's all about that agility, flexibility.
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It helped me.
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I think that part of yeah, when you look at it in the long term, the gymnastics part of it did help me because I was very flexible, I was very agile, I was quick.
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I had good reflexes and I think that that really helped me in my football career.
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Did it help you in your music career.
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No, not really as far as gymnastics is concerned.
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But as I went on to another junior college, no one knew me.
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No one knew anything about anything.
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They didn't have any history on me, period.
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I was just a walk on at this college, at Southwest Junior College, and I um and and I prevailed.
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I met a coach that gave me an opportunity, gave me a chance.
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His name was coach Ray Denham.
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He gave me a chance to um, to show skills that I never got a chance.
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His name was Coach Ray Denham.
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He gave me a chance to show skills that I never got a chance to show from anybody else, because I was pretty good in the playgrounds.
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I was one of the I was a sandlot football.
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I was top dog in the sandlot football right.
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So, and like I said, you know, we played against very tough guys, older guys.
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We played against men basically, and I was just in high school and I was playing against men tackle football without uniforms in the park.
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Okay so, we had some pretty tough games.
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What's?
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the message today.
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I mean you look at.
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Because of that.
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Well, it's just again.
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You look at the people that perhaps are maybe suffering in silence or they're looking for answers.
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Right, how does your story help them in, perhaps, an adversity, struggle, a challenge that they're going through in life?
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I think the the answer is perseverance and determination, like never giving up in whatever you believe in.
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Is that from within, or do you learn that from others?
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Or it could be both.
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It's from within, because I never met anybody else that I could say in those times that had that kind of adversity that I went through.
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So, yeah, it was from within me and I think that.
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Do you think we have that?
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I think it's.
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Do you think every one of us has that?
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I think all of us have it.
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Yeah, I think everybody has it.
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You've got to implement it, though.
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You have to turn on the switch and decide.
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You make decisions.
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I made the decision to not go to the gymnastics program and to go to another college that might give me an opportunity.
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That didn't know anything about me and that was the best decision I made, because that was the turning point in my football career that got me through my junior college to the university that I went to.
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I went to Long Beach State University.
00:18:21.290 --> 00:18:22.488
I didn't know.
00:18:22.488 --> 00:18:26.478
I had scholarship offers from almost every school in the nation.
00:18:26.478 --> 00:18:28.710
It was untold to me.
00:18:28.710 --> 00:18:30.517
No, I didn't know.
00:18:30.517 --> 00:18:41.689
I found out later, like years later, from a guy who was a janitor at the school who said he saw letters from every, almost every school.
00:18:41.689 --> 00:18:45.596
He said he started naming schools like smu, texas, a&m, ucla, usc.
00:18:45.596 --> 00:18:49.730
Stacks of letters like this.
00:18:49.730 --> 00:18:56.686
He said man, I saw letters this many letters for you and a couple other guys, yeah, but I never saw those letters.
00:18:56.686 --> 00:19:03.035
I only talked to the coaches that came to visit me and they were from Long Beach State.
00:19:03.536 --> 00:19:06.118
Well, again, that's perhaps another divine moment.
